In this issue, we talk about having the right sales process for successful sales execution. I look forward to your comments. 

 
 Rick Erling
(972) 727-6880
 
 

Developing a sales process that is successful, replicable, and measurable is one key to growing your firm. Like six sigma models, the correct sales process is designed to minimize and eliminate business errors that reduce your sales operational deficiencies and increase corporate profitability. Having corporate revenue success is not always a proven sales process. Often individual sales successes by specific members of your sales team or the sale of one large contract are anomalies that are not replicable.

Successful sales processes are business maps that can be used by a broad range of sales team members over and over again and can pull up average salesperson skills to a corporate minimum, while helping senior salespeople expand their achievements.

Deploying and managing sales metrics is the key to successful management.

Sales processes driven by metrics allow you to:

• Reduce your sales cycle time to close a contract
• Reduce sales capture costs per sale including travel and expenses and sales support
• Increase your sales team success
• Develop training programs based of factual sales needs
• Increase your sales team retention
• Increase the efficiencies of your operations, engineering and R&D groups

The design of many company sales processes generally falls into four categories:

1. The company has no written sales process.
2. The company's sales process is based on other company's business practices.
3. The company's sales process is based on unsubstantiated sales step success.
4. The company's sales process is based on one salesperson's success experiences or the founder's selling experiences.

A successful sales process is the sum of your corporate skills and the needs of the buyer.

To sell more products or services in this market, you must adapt your sales process to your buyer's needs . . . not what worked for you at another company two years ago.

Sales Process and Strategy Test

1. When sales revenue per salesperson is down or when your company's revenues are down, does your firm just hire more salespeople?
   
   ___Yes ___No
    
2. Have you have changed your sales model during the last twenty-four months?
   
   ___Yes ___No
    
3. Do you have a written, documented step-by-step sales model detailing your firm's entire sales process from pre-sale to post-sale?
   
   ___Yes ___No
    
    
4. When your firm discusses new sales methods and models for your firm, do they consult with internal peers and management only?
   
   ___Yes ___No
    
5. Do you (or your management team) believe prospects will buy your products or services just because you think what you deliver is better or because your prices are lower?
   
   ___Yes ___No
    
6. Does your sales team get paid the same commission for new business from existing clients as new business from new clients?
   
   ___Yes ___No
    
7. Does your firm use the same sales model process to sell CFO's, CIO's, General Managers, or CEO's as it does to sell lower-level managers?
   
   ___Yes ___No
    
8. Does your firm track closing ratios by prospect title?
   
   ___Yes ___No
    
9. Is your sales forecast/closing ratio at least 75% accurate month-to-month?
   
   ___Yes ___No
    
    
10. Is the pricing of your service or product reactive to your competitors?
    
    ___Yes ___No
     
11. Do you have a documented outbound sales model that describes the selling methods, sales steps, and techniques required by your sales team to capture new business (versus an inbound sales model where the sales team waits for leads from the marketing department)?
    
    ___ Yes ___No
     
12. Does your firm use specific account and profit guidelines when you sell new key accounts (versus a market share approach to capture major accounts at any cost)?
    
    ___ Yes ___No
     
13. Do you allow only senior executive contacts in your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) or contact manager to be considered as qualified buyers when calculating your sales forecasting value (versus accepting all manager titles as valid in your sales forecast)?
    
    ___ Yes ___No
     
14. Does your sales strategy require action steps to be taken by your prospects in order to be considered as qualified buyers (versus the responsive model where you wait for the prospect to respond to your sales communication)?
    
    ___ Yes ___No
     
15. Does your plan offer multiple pricing options to make it easier for prospects to buy (versus seeking big ticket sales opportunities driven by price)?
    
    ___ Yes ___No
     
16. Has your firm forecasted the market demand based on research for each product or service you sell (versus a forecast based on assuming there is a demand or a market study that is more than one year old)?
    
    ___ Yes ___No
     
17. Does your firm have a sales model that provides ongoing sales training for your team (versus a sales model where the sales team must educate themselves as they go)?
    
    ___ Yes ___No
     
18. Are your firm's marketing efforts technology-driven based on the technical superiority of your product or service (versus pain-driven based on the client needs)?
    
    ___ Yes ___No
     
19. Is your firm market-driven by trying to sell horizontally to everyone (versus vertical-driven where each product and service has an identified market, price, prospect type, business need, etc.)?
    
    ___ Yes ___No
     
20. Does your firm have an integrated management model where sales, marketing, strategy, and strategic alliances are all tied to corporate revenue success (versus a stand-alone management model where each department has its own objectives)?
    
    ___ Yes ___No

Correct Answers :

Each correct answer is worth 5 points. How did you score? Is your score above 70? If not, you may need a new sales process to increase revenue.

When developing a successful sales strategy process, it is important to make sure that the strategy itself does not stand alone, but instead integrates into the corporate business plan with the appropriate execution steps.

Having the right sales strategy process is the key to successful sales execution.

Sales strategy process first,
Sales success second!

I welcome your comments.

 To your success,

Rick Erling